Flower fields from the past 04-11-15

This is an image of the flower fields near Carlsbad taken in 2009. 

I thought I had some pictures shared by friends of flower fields in Washington State and Holland, but I cannot find them. 

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Down and back to San Diego on Wednesday 04-10-15

I drove to San Diego on Wednesday to deliver a quilt.  The traffic was terrible both ways - 2hrs/35min down and 2hrs/45min back home.  I thought that traffic would be less during Spring Break, so I wasn't mentally prepared for slogging along and it made me crabby.  Since I was alone I suffered in silence, although I do have some choice words for inadequate drivers and those crazy motorcyclists

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I was looking forward to a lovely sandwich at Con Pane, kitty-corner from Visions Art Museum, but it was closed, as it always is on Wednesdays - I just don't remember.  However, I was joined by museum volunteer Judy Warren-Tippets for a veggie sandwich at the little chocolate spot on the other corner.  It was good with an excellent latte and enhanced by the company I was keeping.  Such a nice person. 

 

On the way home I hoped to see the flower fields near Carlsbad and took the Palomar Airport Road off of I-5.  Lots of people, not many flowers.  I went around on the dirt road that accesses the student tours gate, but it appears that they didn't plant any flowers there this year, or they were already picked.  I suspect it was the former and the reason might be lack of water. 

 

Near the Student's gate you can look back toward the freeway and see the local landmark, a windmill on the roof of a restaurant.  I believe it was once an Anderson's Pea Soup place.  The sails are turned by electric power, not by the wind.

In the foreground is the unplanted/already picked area and far away on the top of the slope you can just see some of the ranunculas blooming.  There were people on the farm wagons being driven by tractor through the fields, so there are enough flowers to attract the public. 

Back on the road I enjoyed the wide open sky over the blue Pacific.  You notice that when I took this picture there were no cars near me - I am very cautious when I'm driving and photographing.  I don't look at what I am shooting - I just point and shoot as many frames as I can.  This was one of five, the others were not good.

This is the San Onofre nuclear power plant which is no longer in operation.  When it will be removed is anybody's guess. Perhaps the land will be added to Camp Pendleton adjoining it on the south.

I stopped at my favorite viewing spot, high on the ridge behind San Clemente.  That blue smudge just to the right of center on the horizon is Santa Catalina Island - it was an amazingly clear day.

Moving right to left down the coast - the views continue.

As you can tell there are no houses on the west side of this street so the view is unobstructed.

There is a huge house at the end of the road (behind me) - I'll bet I wouldn't accomplish much if I had the blue Pacific to look at most of the time. 

 

With the drought there aren't many flowers along the road and the trees are drooping and dropping leaves and even branches.  Our fire season is all year now, but mid-summer into the fall is the worst period and everything is already too dry.

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Last of Elizabeth Busch class 04-09-15

This is the last student work I have to show you from Elizabeth Busch's class a Empty Spools.  You  can see student work done in the October class she taught at Visions Art Museum in San Diego  by clicking on her name on the sidebar  Her website is http://www.elizabethbusch.com/   I believe her next five day class is in September at the Pacific Northwest Art School in Coupevlle, WA, on Whidby Island.  www.pacificnorthwestartschool.org

This is the work of Jeanne Surber.  Her piece on the top right is "Sadness" which 9 people identified, but one thought it said cold.  The bottom left is "Hot" which had 5 votes for hot, but the other five were for anger.   The third piece is something else she was working on. 

This is a demo piece that Elizabeth put together in the class.  The fabrics are her  painted canvas using

 the ProChem paints.  This class did not include painting because there are no paint cleanup facilities at

 Asilomar

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More on Olga Norris quilt posted on 04-05-15

Olga sent me a correction on the post about her quilt.  She says: This particular piece is cotton cut back to silk dupion, with cotton thread stitching.  The image was printed onto computer transfer paper which was then ironed onto cotton lawn.  The coating of the transfer paper fixes the cotton so that it does not fray, and so it is easy to cut back to the silk. 04-08-15
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More Elizabeth Busch class/Empty Spools 04-07-15

Here are two more design boards from Elizabeth's class in Session III at Empty Spools.

Gudny Campbell uses her computer in her work and has several books to her credit.  She has ordered fabric from Spoonflower which she cuts up and uses in her quilts.  The five images across the bottom of her board are printouts of five of her completed quilts.  At top right is her "Joy" which the class members guess as joy, anger, hot and chaos. 

In the center is her "Cold"  which was identified as both cold and sadness. 

www.creatingwithpixels.com

 

Skye McDonald shows, at top left, her samples sewn on card stock and, at top right, her fused exercises.  Below these on the left are her "Anger" which no one had correct, guessing joy, chaos and sadness.  On the right below is her "Sad' which more of the class saw as hot or anger, only two read it as "Sad". 

 

I particularly like this piece, but I see it as HOT - like the interior of a furnace.

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More Elizabeth Busch class/Empty Spools 04-06-15

Here, with their permission, are a few more design boards from Elizabeth's class.

The boards, provided by Empty Spools, are 40" x 60".

 At the top left of Andrea Bacal's board are three color copies of work she has done recently - Elizabeth asked us to each bring up to five images that show what we have been making.

The small pieces are samples and small works done in class.  The large yellow piece is Andrea's expression of  Chaos (also perceived as joy and anger).  Above it is her Joy (which all but one classmate correctly identified). 

Barbara Peters "voice" was true, we all guessed her pieces correctly.  They are the size of the design boards.  This one is, of course, Joy.  I love the image of schools of fish over the rainbow.

And this is,  obviously, Chaos.

 

I have a few other permissions to share class members' work, so this "series" will continue this week.

 

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Quilt by English quilter Olga Norris 04-05-15

Olga sent me a correction on this post.  She says: This particular piece is cotton cut back to silk dupion, with cotton thread stitching.  The image was printed onto computer transfer paper which was then ironed onto cotton lawn.  The coating of the transfer paper fixes the cotton so that it does not fray, and so it is easy to cut back to the silk. 04-08-15

 

 

Olga Norris is one of the quiltmakers I found by browsing the Internet.  Her work is very detailed and the four pieces I bought are very small.   I hang them as a group on my wall and can't help but examine her careful stitching whenever I am close by.  It is sort of like Kantha, but each stitch is so tiny and so individual - uniquely Olga.

 

 

"The Crow's Story"  Olga Norris - England 2012  7"x7"

Silk with cotton backing, silk thread. Hand appliqued and quilted.

The black outlines show the black backing underneath.

Notice how she does the contour stitching to the shape of the head and body.

This is her elegant label printed on the computer printer.

Her initials O.N. form the sky. 

 

http://www.olganorris.com/ 

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